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With the recent finding of a Zod rune, I've decided to use it, but in multiple ways. Since I only have one, I'm going to eventually decide on one of these paths. Each of them very hard due to finding the perfect weapon to put it in. So here is what I decided. The Zod will go to one of these, but I want some input, the poll won't exactly decide the fate of the Zod, I will, but I just want some general input that may skew my decision a little differently.

Choice One: Breath of the Dying Ethereal Superior 1.07 Archon Staff
Archon Staff, not only does it give you great style points, but it has massive damage. Coming in at a whopping 83-99 at the small cost of 34 Strength(!) it's a good choice. Sure it's only got a 10 on the weapon speed, but think about it. Ethereal = -10 on the Required Str, plus a -20% Req from Hel would take that down even further. You could make base strength builds! Hell. You could make one sickeningly high-lifed Barbarian with one of these puppies. Good choice, and the only downfall is the pitiful range of 2. Also, Archon Staves could be racked in 1.07, right? If not I might have to settle for one in 1.10. But I mean come on. I found a Zod, that's probably my luck for the next decade, where the hell am I going to get an Archon staff? More specifically an ethereal superior six socketed one?!

Choice Two: Breath of the Dying Ethereal Superior 1.07 Colossus Blade
Well, do I need to say much? Great damage on non-barbarian characters(58-115) and for barbs they could use it like that or with a shield and still get great use. Slightly high strength/dex requirements, but nothing that the Ethereal and Hel couldn't drop fairly low. Range 3 makes it great for any melee play. It's only downfall is some builds make it easier with a shield, so this, like the Archon staff, suffers from the "two hand only" problem.

Choice Three: Breath of the Dying Hydra Bow
HERETIC! BURN! BUUUUURN! Put BotD in a non-ethereal item? Waste of a Zod! Though I must admit that not many builds would benefit from this. Windforce beats it out in max damage by a longshot. But it's a possibility, and something that could be done without having to play countless hours of 1.07.

Choice Four: Breath of the Dying Superior 1.07 Ethereal Berserker Axe
Obvious obvious obvious. One of the most popular things to make BotD in. People would flame me for lacking style and being just like everyone else, but I've usually not been one to care for style over effectiveness. This could be used one handed by ANY character, it's fast, has great damage, fairly low requirements, and can be used with a shield/other weapon(if barb). The uses of this type is virtually unlimited. Overall great choice, and very few downfalls. Awesome and very worthy of the Zod rune.

Choice Four: Breath of the Dying Superior 1.07 Ethereal Glorious Axe
Look at the Glorious Axe. Same speed as an Archon Staff, twice the range, and about the same damage when you get into average hits. Two handed, of course, so no shield, not even with a barbarian. It's something I'd never heard of people considering, and the main downfall is the large strength requirement, but it's not much more than that of a Colossus Blade.

Choice Five: Breath of the Dying Superior 1.07 Ethereal Ghost Spear/War Pike
Not sure if polearms/spears can be racked in 1.07, in fact I'm not quite sure about racking in 1.07 as a whole, I need to research things more, eh? Ghost Spear has great damage(18-155!) range 5, but the main problem is the HUGE strength and dexterity investments. Most weapons just require a lot of one or the other, this one comes in at a whopping 122 strength and 163 dex to use. Sure that's lowered by Ethereal Bonus + Hel, but man. Also, it's got a speed of 0, so a very interesting choice if anything. The Warpike has the same thing with the Ghost Spear, with one key difference. It's SLOW AS HELL. The upside is it has insane damage, coming out with the highest damaging 2h weapon in the game(I think), at least as far as normal white items go.

Choice Six: Breath of the Dying Superior 1.07 Ethereal Great Poleaxe
About the same as the Ghost Spear, but less requirements. Can't comment too much, good speed, average damage. Overall can't keep saying the same thing about similar weapons. It could also be a great merc weapon on characters not using the item.

Choice Seven: Breath of the Dying Superior 1.07 Ethereal Giant Thresher
Yes, I'm pretty much naming every elite item that can get six sockets. Giant Thresher gets an amazing -10 on the speed, good range, but fairly high requirements. For the increase of speed you lose some damage as compared to the others, though. Yet again a great weapon for a merc on non-BotD using characters.

Choice Eight: Breath of the Dying Superior 1.07 Ethereal Ogre/Thunder Maul
I only included these due to the fact they were there to be included. Both can get six sockets, both have huge damage, and both require huge amounts of strength to weild. They're also very slow. The only issue with this is both cost 200+ strength to use. That's a LOT of strength for some characters, so it might end up being one of those things I'd shelf for just dwelling on a "that'd be cool, buuut..." situation.

Choice Nine: Perfect Upgraded Ethereal Ribcracker
Included because 1) It'd be a very nice candidate for the Zod and 2) Nightfish would punch me if I didn't include it. If my calculations are correct, one of these babies would do 478-705 damage if the ED% was perfect. It has great IAS, great Crushing Blow, Overall this thing would rock the house for many many characters. The downside you ask? You mean there is a DOWNSIDE TO THIS!? Yes. It's only a range 2 weapon, and only reaches 6 fpa for a Fury druid, not to mention it'd be fairly slower for most other builds. Sure, 6 fpa isn't BAD, especially not with that kind of damage, not to mention range 2 isn't really a horrible thing either, but it's still a downside that some people find crappy.

Choice Ten: ???
Anything that I'm missing? I want to keep this thread serious. Just incase you don't know, serious falls in the line of no posts saying, "Put it in a cracked cap ololol!" or "Put it in a Phase Blade of Ages!" or "Put it in a Wirt's Leg!". And yes, that last one was directed at farting_bob. If you so much as suggest using Wirt's Leg with anything to do with my Zod, I will snap. Also, if anyone breaks the seriousness issue, I will report your post to a moderator. I'm not trying to be an ass, I just want to get the proper input for this. So if you can think of anything better than what I listed, let me know.

if you're like most people (me included) you use an act2 merc almost all of the time. I like the idea of a super-duper merc weapon, while being able to go with a build specific weapon on your character. You'd definitely get some reusability with this path.

That would be an insane weapon. I did some damage calculation. A perfect Thunder Maul has 33-180 a Strength requirement of 253.
Make that Ethereal you get 49-270 a str req of 243.
No a perfect BotD adds 400% damage: 245-1350 a str req of 195 and a speed of -40. This is not bad at all.
Now I take my Berzerker (~lvl 80). He has a Berzerk that adds another 700% damage. Now we are at 1960-10800. That's without considering any bonus from the 195 points in strength.

Let's talk about damage.

And I think a strength requirement of 195 is not that hard for a Barbarian to get. Remember we are going 2-handed no shield. So we do not need any points into Dex or Energy. That leaves >200 points into vitality at level 80.

EDIT: It may not be useful for a lot of different chars, but I think it has the most damage you can get on a weapon.

I voted ribcracker, but only because the bow is a waste, and the idea of putting a legit 1.10 Zod in a 1.07 item seems kind of wrong stylistically to me. The chances of getting a legit Zod are so low I see no reason to in any way spoil it with previous patch items. Give the Zod the 1.10 home it deserves.

I voted ribcracker, but only because the bow is a waste, and the idea of putting a legit 1.10 Zod in a 1.07 item seems kind of wrong stylistically to me. The chances of getting a legit Zod are so low I see no reason to in any way spoil it with previous patch items. Give the Zod the 1.10 home it deserves.

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IIRC, Ethereal items from 1.07 got a 50% Max Damage bonus on top of the 50% Ethereal Bonus. Thus resulting in MUCH higher damage than regular ethereal items from 1.09/1.10

EDIT:
Sledge, did you even read my post? Actually I don't even know why I bothered asking that since you either A) Didn't or B) Did and completely refused to listen to anything it said.

I think you should make it in a Hydra Bow, and give it a fire rogue merc. Then play a mediocre melee character (meleemancer, swordmistress, melee sorc, etc.) with this merc. Why? Mostly because itÂ´s original.

Another use that you havenÂ´t mentioned is a rare ethereal elite weapon. Lots of potential here.

IIRC, Ethereal items from 1.07 got a 50% Max Damage bonus on top of the 50% Ethereal Bonus. Thus resulting in MUCH higher damage than regular ethereal items from 1.09/1.10

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Yeah I know that, which is why I think a 1.07 shouldn't be used. It just seems asthetically wrong to use such a rare drop in such a cheesey manner. Of course, everyone has their own sense of style, so I'm just calling it how I see it.

I vote war pike. The insanely insane damage is just..well...insane. And it has the bonus of being able to be used on all your act 2 mercs and some barb builds would surely enjoy it. (maybe WW. very high dmg, max range, acceptable speed. sounds sick to me! and a bucket full of style points)